A Question about hatchet fish

[Laser]

I was reading that the marble hatchets get to be about 1.5 inches in length and the silver hatchets get to be 2 inches in length. I noticed at my LFS that the silver hatchets seemed to be more active while the marble ones just kind of sat there at the top. Are the silver hatchets a more hardy variety than the marbles?

 

[lyquidphyre]

Yes, marbles tend to me more finicky (or however you spell it). I have both marbles and silvers and my silvers did so much better (in fact, all 6 marbles I purchased died within a few months).

 

[Laser]

Thanks, I thought that might be the case. As cool as the marbles look I'll probably go with the silvers. Do you think they will be comfortable in a school of 4 of them?

 

[richiestang_78]

I bought 5 Silver hatchet fish, all jumped out of the tank except 1 so I gave up on the species ingeneral. Make sure you cover the tank completely with plexiglass or something. My silver is about 2 inches after 3 years of having him

 

[Jaybird]

I have four marbled hatchets, and the floating leaves of my plants move more than they do.

I would go with the silvers, if you are going with hatchetfish. Someone here mentioned killifish as being a livelier option to hatchets, but I have no experience with those.

 

[hsherman1986]

i have silver hatchets, and i love them. They are the only species of fish i have in my tank that survived the ick. At least one of every other type of fish i have died. I still have all five hatchets. They are cool to look at, i like to watch them when I turn out the lights, they freak out and start swimming all over the place.

 

[lyquidphyre]

I think a school of 4 would be okay. It is recommended they be in schools of six, and I think visually it might be more appealing to have more than 4. But 4 will work

like mentioned, they WILL jump out. I had to jumpers- its a said way to go.

 

[Laser]

I've got the jumping thing covered...hehe... 100 percent... i've seen those suckers jump.

 

[Zagz]

Yes the silvers are more active and yes keep them well covered. I too lost 2 of them to jumping out of the tank.